To think over ordering prescription medicines is sensible?

[Edenviolet]

I always order more than we need/order more frequently than necessary.

The medication will all be used and it is handy to have extra supplies if needed.
The pharmacist was questioning me today as to why we are going through so many items/medications and seemed to think we should only order what we need when we need it?
I prefer to have a 'stock' of dcs medications etc and think I'm sensible in doing so

AIBU?

It can take three weeks to get hold of one my child's medications. Therefore I always make sure we have at least a month's supply as back up.

Another med, we need maybe once a week when well, but could use 12 times a day when ill. As repeat prescriptions can take up to 5 days, I keep 60 doses minimum so we are always covered for emergencies. When well, that's a year's supply. When ill, that's less than a week. Sadly, I can't predict when the ill will happen.

We also have an emergency med with a shelf life of three months. We have to have 2 doses of that at all times. Thankfully, most of the time, those two doses are binned at the end of three months and we have two new bottles instead. I don't know what the waste costs and I can't make them give us a longer shelf life. But I assume the cost of binning two doses up to 4 times a year is cheaper than the costs incurred when we don't have it and have to be blue lighted to resus. It's used once or twice a year, mostly.

Most medications I keep a 2 week buffer, but around holidays and busy times that can easily become a month.

Then there's the 2 litres of paracetamol we get on prescription every month. True, you can buy it OTC. But not generally in those quantities.

Blood glucose strips, ketone strips and insulin usually have at least a year before they go out of date when they are issued, often more like three years. A three month stockpile is not going to cause waste if they are used in date order, which the OP does.

I don't know quite what you are asking. Yes of course it is safe and sensible for you to keep enough supplies so that you can't run out in an emergency waiting for a prescription or an appointment. But yes, also to those that have said once you have that spare capacity, you would only need the usual amount to maintain your supplies. I wonder if you are actually saying that you use far more than the Dr thinks you need to, in which case you need to discuss that amount of need with him/her to make sure s/he understands what your child needs.

Or are you saying that your anxiety and stockpiling and use of testing is spiralling? In which case some support and discussion with the ?diabetes nurse specialist might help. Anger with the pharmacist is probably misplaced, they are checking that things are being done right and that you and your doctor are in the same page.

calm - I've been on the same medication for 16 years. My previous reviews have been a complete box-ticking exercise that lasts maybe 90 seconds at a push.

Are you feeling ok on your current dose? Yes.
Any side effects? No.
Have there been any changes to the stability of your condition? No.

End of appointment.

Apparently the GPs get paid to do these reviews, hence why they have them. Or so I'm told anyway, I don't know whether that's true.

It must be a recent-ish thing as it's only over the last 5 years, possibly less, than I'm requested to have reviews.

One of the Pharmacists took me into one of their offices about 6 months ago to discuss my prescription with me, she told me it was for a review of my needs, so why that can't suffice instead of me having to waste a GP appointment slot I don't know?

I was offended because we have been going to the pharmacy since dd was diagnosed 2.5 years ago. On more than one occasion when she was newly diagnosed and we nearly ran out of bg strips they were horrible to us, questioned why we tested so often and virtually made us beg to borrow a box of strips till the prescription came through.

We've stayed with them as currently they are only pharmacy offering the electronic repeat system

Writer, I don't go to my reviews. I'm under consultant care for my diabetes and my GP wouldn't change anything, my consultant or diabetes nurse would. I'm not going to waste the GP's time (and my time) on a pointless review.

I don't think my anxiety is getting any worse no, but I did very quickly realise that having a stock meant things were less hectic and stressful when dd is ill. For example when she has a cold she can need a 200% increase in insulin dose so her needs can vary greatly. Same with bg and ketone testing

So perhaps the amount per prescription could be increased by talking to your doctor. More efficient for you, GP and pharmacy.

YABVU to have 3 months worth of meds. A month is plenty. No wonder the pharmacist is asking questions - he knows how much it costs.

You can't have this huge stockpile just because of your anxiety, it's ridiculous.

Kings, that's unfair, it doesn't cost any more if it's all used before expiry or medication change.

So having what would be a normal months worth of meds as a back up would be sensible because then even with an increase in need you would have time to catch back up.

Perhaps as your GP for a spare "emergency" script you can just get made up when things are bad as a back up?

threelegged - because my condition is so stable I haven't been under consultant care for about 6 years. I saw one briefly about 20 months ago because I was pregnant but it was just a one-off appointment and wasn't called to be seen again.

I do understand why the reviews need to take place but it's so difficult to actually get one. Pre-bookable appointments are only available 6 weeks in advance and trying to get a same day appointment is a nightmare. Plus, I don't think it's right that something so simple should take up a same-day-appointment when there are ill people out there who genuinely need the slot a lot more than I do.

Part of me thinks that if they want to review me then they should send me an appointment as opposed to telling me they want to see me but then leaving me to fanny about with it all.

To me it's no different to when people say you should have three months wages put aside as a safety net. I just have three months of medications (that we will use) put aside

Does the GP know you have 3 months of meds? They are supposed to be discouraging that kind of stockplie. What happens in strengths or dosages change?

*if

Nobody is questioning your expertise in dealing with your DD's health Hedgehog but I think most people seem to think 3 months is too much. You say you are the best judge of how much you need and, yet, you are the person saying you are stockpiling

God forbid, but if your DD was taken ill, admitted to hospital, treated and stabilised on different meds/insulin or your pump broke and the new version has different accessories or the BG meter needs replacing and takes different strips you would cost money that the NHS may need to treat your daughter when older

It seems sad to me that you and the pharmacist have such a confrontational, poor relationship and the GP fosters that by being lax. You would be better working in partnership to build your confidence so you feel able to reduce your stash and know the meds will always be there for you when needed

Well then you've three choices, obtain larger prescriptions to reduce the frequency you need to go, buy them independently/private prescription or learn to live alongside the fact that you require a prescription that raises a flag to query and you'll have to abide by the regulations and policies the providers are obliged to follow when they issue that prescription.

Yes it probably would be nice to feel you have a more personal relationship and shouldn't need asking more than once, but imho that's a lot to ask from someone whose invested a lot in their training and risks everything the one time they get it wrong. It's completely understandable their choice is to not to let it slide because of routine.

Apples and oranges situations to compare but I've been getting the same bus every day for a year, exchange pleasantries with the driver and he waits for me if he sees me running up the road. He still gives my buspass a look every single time.

Testing strips: don't change
Dose change: use more or less of same
Prescription change: maybe but if overall stable insulin type unlikely to change at short notice

There's a lot more ridiculous wastage in nhs prescriptions than a few hundred quid's worth of life-saving drugs in the bathroom cabinet of a woman with a child with brittle diabetes. Perhaps you could campaign about some of that?

Dosage change is done with the pump or by dialling up a different dose on injection pen. Dds insulin requirement is increasing as she grows and if she has a cold/infection she needs a lot more.

She only needs less if she is sick. It will all be used. The go knows we have spare items at home they are absolutely fine with it. We are managing her diabetes as well as we can and juggling the needs of our other dcs who have health problems too and this way I feel like we are organised

Regulations are there for a reason and the pharmacist wouldn't be doing his job properly if he didn't check that they were being kept to. He is doing his job when he questions you. Very unfair to be so disrespectful of him, imo.

The sheer amount of wastage caused within the NHS with people over ordering and stockpiling their medication is staggering.

So when patients have their medication reviewed, changed, they go into hospital long term or die - all that unused medication gets destroyed. The pharmacist can't reuse or reissue it. What a waste.

Of course have a buffer supply but there is no need to have many months worth of any medication.

And crustsaway if your son regularly loses his inhalers you should be trying to make him a bit more responsible. Ok ventolin is cheap as chips but some preventers cost upwards of £30 each.

People can be so blasé about their medication because they either don't pay for it out of their own pockets or have it heavily subsidised. It drives me potty.

Not at all, we used to have to pay £250 a month for some of dd2 diabetes related items and I still had a stock of those just in case. Luckily they are now funded but it made no difference

DP is diabetic and I'd say we have 2 months worth of insulin at any ffiven moment. So many 'random' things mean he needs more, such as increase/decrease in temperature, infections/colds and at the moment, he is on steroids which has TRIPLED his basal rate- average dose 60 units over 24hrs, last 24 he's had 187, no diet change :( I'd say don't over order some things but when you'd die without it, a certain amount of stock piling is acceptable (although if you drop and break 4 vials, ahem, my pharmacy will give it you back on presentation of the stinking broken glass)

I think you should change pharmacist. not because I think your current one is wrong to question but because a pharmacist you can trust is worth their weight in gold.

When it came time to wean dd from her various meds the GP had no advice really beyond "just stop giving them". It was the pharmacist who gave us a strategy and monitored how well it was working by what we were ordering. We had been with a supermarket pharmacist who were poor but changing made a massive difference to my confidence

£30 each sidge?!!! Really? Cripes!

I was recently put on 8 puffs a day due to various factors and was dutifully doing it without realising I had run out - 8 puffs really does drain the thing. My repeat details at two a time - I never ask for two